AMUNDSEN GULF, N.W.T. -- I'm standing in a metal cage, dangling above cold, blue Arctic water while a crane hoists my quivering body up to the deck of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen.
There must be easier ways to get on a boat, but none of them could be so freaking stimulating. And there really is no other option when several metres of -2 C seawater stand between solid ice under foot and the hull of the scientific research vessel you wish to board.
The Amundsen sits in the Amundsen Gulf, a stretch of water between the Northwest Territories mainland and Banks Island.
For three days, Free Press photographer Wayne Glowacki and I have been trying to reach the Amundsen, which is spending the winter in the Amundsen Gulf -- a stretch of water between the Northwest Territories mainland and Banks Island -- as part of a $40-million climate-change research project led by scientists at the University of Manitoba.
On Wednesday, we couldn't even fly into Edmonton, thanks to heavy fog in the Alberta capital. On Thursday, we ventured as far as Inuvik, N.W.T., but couldn't travel further due to nasty weather in the Amundsen Gulf.
Finally, after Coast Guard personnel on snowmobiles plowed out a new landing strip on the Arctic ice near the ship, spreading ash to render the makeshift runway more visible, chief scientist Gary Stern, U of M engineering student Dustin Isleifson, Glowacki and I were able to board the Amundsen.
The journey encompassed 55 hours, more than 3,000 kilometres, five flight legs and one car ride from Calgary to Edmonton in a rental vehicle driven by a determined Steinbach businessman.
But it was the last leg of the trip, a 100-minute flight in a Twin Otter aircraft equipped with a ski over the front wheel, that provided the most awe-inspiring scenery and pulse-pounding excitement.
Heading northeast from Inuvik, the plane flew over a charcoal-pencil landscape of snowy lakes and stunted, northern trees. But after 25 minutes, the tree line gave way to reveal a sheet of solid, glistening white -- hard coastal ice attached to the N.W.T. mainland, crisscrossed by occasional ridges.
Then after another 40 minutes, the sky grew dark and the plane descended beneath a thick, grey lowering ceiling. The cloud cover is due to moisture that comes from vast stretches of open water in the middle of the Amundsen Gulf -- unusual features called polynyas, which have attracted scientists up here in the first place.
Some of these gaps in the ice are long and narrow like rivers and are lined with partly submerged icebergs coloured a brilliant shade of indigo.
Others are so wide as to stretch toward the horizon, which is impressive from 1,500 metres in the air. And they're all entirely natural features, caused by the interaction of wind and ice and conditions in the upper atmosphere.
The Amundsen is stationed up here so scientists can study the air, ice, sea, plants and animals in areas of open water caused by the separation of relatively soft new ice and the harder ice attached to the coast.
These gaps are called circumpolar flaw leads, and they can act as ecological oases in the Arctic -- all manner of organisms, from plankton up to polar bears, thrive in and around the open water and in the midst of ice of various thicknesses that forms when the flaws freeze up.
For a plane to land, however, the ice must be about 70 centimetres thick. And the snow on top must be cleared away to create a runway three football fields long.
Rough weather on Wednesday night destroyed an existing ice runway, forcing Coast Guard personnel to clear a new landing strip on Thursday. But the ice around the Amundsen had yet to freeze, necessitating our ride in a metal cage on Friday.
Normally, new arrivals to ship can walk right up to the bright, red hull and simply climb aboard. Thanks to the weather, we got to dangle above the deep, blue frigidness like a piece of cargo.
Below our feet, the waters churned from the movement of the boat. But we were soon hoisted onto the deck by Coast Guard personnel in black snowsuits and balaclavas.
If you met these people on the street, you would think they were about to rob a Domo gas bar. But when you're dangling in a cage, you're just happy for the help.
PREVIOUS
